It's not just potluck anymore…

Happy Thanksgiving from the Wednesday meal team! We hope you enjoyed our turkey and that you will enjoy some family time next week. See you back in the church dining room on Nov. 28th.

Well, another great turnout for dinner, education and worship at Calvary Lutheran Church last night. We served 600 meals of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans and cupcakes in four flavors. What goes into preparing a Thanksgiving feast for 600 people? Here’s a short synopsis:

On Monday morning the Sysco order arrives on the delivery truck and the cooking begins. 120 pounds of sweet potatoes are washed, baked, peeled and mashed. These go into the refrigerator to await becoming a casserole on Wednesday. Also on Monday, chicken breasts are cooked and shredded for the dressing and the broth is saved for making gravy.

On Tuesday morning, a volunteer group of 10 show up at 9:30 ready to cook. By 1:00 they have prepared 14 large pans of homemade cornbread, 74 dozen cupcakes, rinsed and brined all the turkeys, and set up the serving tables in the dining room.

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20 boneless turkey breasts and 12 whole turkeys are ready to spend the night in the refrigerator in buckets and pans of seasoned brine on Tuesday morning.

Lemon, vanilla, chocolate and pumpkin cupcakes are baked on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning at 7am, the smoker gets fired up with wood and charcoal by Kim Balay, and the turkeys get seasoned and buttered and go into the smoker for about 7 hours. Thanks to Dan Ferber for manning the smoker from 8am to noon. At 1:00, more volunteers arrive and the many recipes are divided up. The dressing is mixed up by hand and put into the oven to bake for an hour and a half, the sweet potato casserole is whipped up in the mixer and it goes into the oven too. The gravy is made and put into roasters to keep warm.

Cornbread dressing ingredients lined up and ready to be mixed.

The frosting is made and the cupcake extravaganza begins…

888 cupcakes frosted in under an hour!

A fine team of turkey carvers made short work of all that turkey just before dinnertime on Wednesday…

A little break from turkey carving before dinner starts

The cupcakes are ready to go

At 4:15, Connie has the water boiling and she begins cooking 96 pounds of green beans. The potato pearls are mixed with hot water, cream cheese and sour cream and put into the insulated warmers. And then dinner is served:

Recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole for 6 servings:

Sweet Potato Casserole: 6 servings

3 cups baked, peeled and mashed sweet potatoes (about 1 ½#)

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup melted butter

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Combine first 6 ingredients. Pour into a buttered 2 qt. casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over top. Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until hot and browned.